Instincts
by xxEffrontery
Summary: Solas spent centuries walking the fade with only spirits as company. Accustomed to the isolation and serenity of his dreams, interacting with the more tangible inhabitants of Thedas proves challenging. Emotions that had long since been buried rush to the surface and threaten to unravel all his plans, if his new companions don't drive him mad first.
1. Chapter 1

The never ending source of his frustration sat across the campfire, carefully avoiding his eye contact as usual. This was their unspoken pact- no interaction beyond necessities. It seemed hard to believe that just two weeks ago he was the only thing keeping her tied to this world under the angry watch of Cassandra. Now he wished Adan had not been so fortuitous with hodgepodge potions and salves and given him a chance to let her slip from this plane of existence without suspicion.

Solas exhaled forcefully at the rush of… something that arose every time he caught sight of her. Every movement, every word, seemed to mock him with his own power and failings. He decided that something was rage and it was righteous in these circumstances. He became acutely aware of the sting in his palms and uncurled the fists he had made. The loss of the perfect control he had spent the better part of a century on only furthered his fixation on the woman just ten feet away. He considered how quickly he could wrap his fingers around her throat at this distance and felt the internal scratching of his beast at the thought of the hunt.

As he had several times in the last month, he indulged himself in the fantasy while he stared through the flames into the face of his prey. Her mouth would look better agape than the conniving grin in which it was currently held. A shudder went down his spine as he thought of her face, pale skin flushed from exertion as she fled, her voice ripping through an otherwise still forest with his name. Unexpected eye contact tore him from the scene as she regarded him with a grim expression. Her golden eyes were boring into his and quickly darkening as the pupils dilated. Her expression took a new name in his head. Fear. Had she heard the wolf howling?

"Herald," he said. The camp and its inhabitants grew impossibly still at the acknowledgment. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and the roar of blood in his ears leftover from his daydream. The absolute reverence stroked the wolf's ego just enough to put a smirk on the man's face. The indulgences in these wanton thoughts were eroding his normally stoic nature, he thought fleetingly, they would have to be brought to heel before he submitted to his wants and whims like a common dog. Perhaps later.

At the formal title hurled like a curse, the woman's eyes narrowed into angry slits. Her lips were pressed so tightly together they blanched white and her teeth could almost be heard cracking under the pressure of her clenched jaw. He had only just learned how easy she was to engage and thus far had yet to disappoint him with reactions. She might have his power and unwittingly derailed his plans, but she was nothing more than the product of misfortune. The thought comforted him.

She stood abruptly and crossed the ten feet faster than expected. Despite the naturally lithe form of elven women, she towered over him in this moment. He casually looked up at her without shifting his relaxed posture and was rewarded by seeing fury slip across her face like a shadow. At this distance he could almost taste the anger pouring out of every inch of her skin, a heady drought he was beginning to crave more often. He wondered briefly if he could taste his power if he were to press his mouth to the wrist extended towards him.

Her hand jerked in a vague sweeping gesture to the right. "Solas, with me." Her words barely cleared her lips before she was moving towards the forest edge outside of camp. A pointed look at the qunari and tevinter mage sent them scrambling for their tents before she was outside the fire's light.

She was making this too easy, he must have fallen asleep and entered the Fade. No other scenario could present him this quarry in such a neat package. Here he could loosen the boundaries on the wolf a little more and perhaps ease some of the persistent frustration that clouded his mood while awake. The restraint within snapped like twine tied too tightly and rushed to the surface.

Now he was all too quick to follow her into the dark. He couldn't stop the need to flex his hands as he neared the woman who was leaned against a tree just inside the forest. When would she run? All of his remaining focus went into willing the Fade to send her sprinting so that he could chase and capture. His power sang to him with encouragement to drink it from her palm, her heartbeat was deafening as the blood rushed and colored her face and ears in a mottled blush, he wasn't sure which he wanted to address first. His imagination ran wild in careless abandon now.

"I want you gone by morning."

Her voice pulled his hazy thoughts into loose focus. For a moment he was taken aback and paused in closing the remaining foot of space between them. How odd of the Fade to be slow to respond to his will and then press him with distress. Her back was partially turned to him as she stared into the night and he noted with a flash of annoyance that he could not watch her reactions now. He would remedy that.

The thin bones of her wrist seemed even finer in his palm as he closed his hand around it. His power hummed just beyond his reach now, sending tendrils of electrical currents up his arm. So close. With one quick jerk, he brought her to face him and delighted in the uncertainty in her eyes. Oh yes, she would run now if he released her. His fingers didn't loosen their vice grip.

Drunk on power and freedom, he wasn't prepared for his Fade Herald to react with such vigor. One moment he was in control of her, finally, and the next his back was slammed into the tree. "Do you suddenly not understand me? Leave!" the Herald snarled at him, pressing him harder into the bark with a pointed finger at his throat. Her shoulder was rammed into his solar plexus with enough force to knock the wind out of him.

"Herald…?" Solas started, the confusion quieting the wolf enough to slam the cage closed again. The realization this was not the Fade washed over him like ice. This was not a dream, he had actually lost control, he had almost…

"What part of 'I do not want you here' are you confused about? You hate me, right? So take this opportunity to escape my presence if it's so intolerable." She spat the words like venom at him, pressing into him harder with every syllable. The fog in his head cleared as she spoke and he opened his mouth to defend himself. The words would not come as beckoned and so he snapped his jaw shut instead, resigned to his fate.


	2. Chapter 2

_Two weeks prior_

"The conclave! She survived, look at her hand, she must be at fault!" Cassandra whirled to face him. Her face was frenzied with anguish and it gave a ghoulish cast in the low light of the dungeon. "Can you wake this...elf for questioning?" The sentence was less of a request and more a thinly veiled threat carried on the hesitation to say her race.

Adan had been pouring potions down her throat for last hour to no avail and the lack of progress was wearing thin on both hands of the Divine. Leliana had nearly ripped the crater apart to find a shred of proof, anything to justify the death of the elf lying unresponsive at their feet. Her lust for vengeance loomed over the occupants of the room like a cloud. The tension mingled with loathing and pressed in on every square inch of skin like a vice. The emotions were as uncomfortable as they were potent.

"I will try. Not here though, I require somewhere less _oppressive_ " Solas said.

Leliana narrowed her eyes as she regarded the two elves with cool disregard. "Very well, the hut by the gate. Surely that is adequate?"

"I had the old potion master's home in mind," he replied with special attention to a neutral tone.

Cassandra made a noise of disgust at that and gripped the hilt of her sword. "The dungeons are where she belongs. Outside of Haven's walls are out of the question." One armored boot nudged the body laying on the stone before them. "Get her out of my sight before I do something I may regret."

Adan scrambled to purpose and summoned his tranquil aide to move the woman. Solas watched with careful disinterest before he turned to leave. "I will need privacy to address this magic. Interruptions could have unexpected consequences." He knew the seeker would ensure they were not disturbed lest horrors be summoned by the mysterious magic at hand. A nightmare of abominations and demons running amok would ensure he would get the time needed to overcome this deviation from his plan.

The inhabitants of Haven gawked as Adan and his tranquil carried the limp form through them. Solas noted that most either sneered in disgust at the elf or were fixated on the erie glow of her palm. He was grateful when the hut was reached and the woman laid atop the threadbare blanket that covered a musty bed. His nose wrinkled at the smell of the room, abandonment smelt no different here than the ruins of ancients. Adan caught notice and gave a nod of agreement at the state of the shelter.

"I will gather some supplies and restock my potions. When I return this evening, I will bring something to knock the cobwebs down. Until then," Adan bowed his head briefly before the door shut behind him.

Solas revelled in the silence that followed while he looked over the space provided. He was more or less free of the nightingale's keen eyes here which brought a palpable sense of relief. She was too observant for comfort and more suspicious of him than Cassandra. This was the closest thing to actual privacy he'd encountered as of late. Content with the examination of the hut, he turned his attention to the woman.

She was covered in black soot and dried blood. The mixture of the two in her hair created a black plaster mask glued to the flesh of her face. He couldn't honestly say there wasn't a Qunari under the muck her features were so obscured. His mouth twitched up a bit in the corners at the thought of uncovered horns and the uproar that would cause.

With not much else available, he cut a square of the blanket away and summoned a sphere of water. He wetted the cloth in the sphere and began to wipe at the filth. It was slow work both from the amount to be removed and the chill of the wet rag that set an ache in his fingers after a minute or so.

He nearly lost his desire to see the face of the great derailer when a piece of muck gave way and revealed tanned and freckled skin underneath. The integrity of her mask compromised, it soon gave way completely. Solas sucked in a breath at the sight of her vallaslin. The symbol of Mythal burned almost metallic copper in the hollows of her face and seemed to glow even in the dim light of the fire. He forced himself to swallow the taste of bile at the sight and quieted the memories that stirred within.

Her cheekbones were well defined by both anatomy and hunger, he noted with some degree of curiosity. The dusting of freckles across the prominent planes of her face told him she enjoyed the sun more than most and it almost seemed to be leaves on a tree when considered with the vallaslin. He glanced briefly at her lips and noted they were drawn in a tight grimace even now. Her palm pulsated with each heartbeat and charged the air with an unmistakable scent of magic that threatened to overwhelm the senses. He pried one eye open and nearly jumped at the deep molten gold that focused for just a moment on him. It was not so common to see that color among the Dalish, or at least he had not encountered it in the last year during his travels. It was an older color from his memories.

The inky dark tendrils of hair that wisped around her face moved with every breath and belied the struggle that each one took. Solas pursed his lips together while he considered the enormous strain she was under with his magic coursing through her veins. The fact she was not ripped asunder by it was a testament to the unconscious woman in and of itself.

With his observations complete, Solas began the slow and methodical work of stitching her back together fiber by fiber. He pried with his magic in an attempt to quell the chaos within her and noted with some shock that there was magic of her own there already entwined with his in an attempt to tame it. The recognizable green was streaked through with blue the color of midday sky the closer to her core he wandered. Rather than risk corrupting himself with her, he turned his attention to her extremities where his power ran rampant and unsullied.

It was an arduous task to bind a piece of himself within her flesh and knit back the hole in her hand where it had spilled out in excess. He refused to close it entirely for fear of being unable to set it free when the time came or risk having it tainted if sealed within her. He had not seen this type of encroachment before, but he rarely invaded the soul of another to begin with. It was something to be researched before he trifled with it again.

Time had slipped by and chased the sun from the sky much faster than Solas would have liked. He had his power tucked away from prying eyes for now, but it would not last forever. The hands of the Divine needed someone to punish after all. He sat in quiet thought, eyes focused on the elf before him. Her grimace was gone and the color returned somewhat to her cheeks.

A knock at the door brought him back from the recesses of his mind. Adan soon appeared bedside while the tranquil woman set about to clearing the signs of disuse from the hut. "She looks better already, breathing is even at least."

Solas hummed in agreement as courtesy demanded before he stood and headed for the door. "I will return when you are finished here." He hadn't noticed how heavy his eyelids had become until he'd seen the alchemist stifle a yawn moments ago. The Fade called to him and he had questions for a friend there.


End file.
